Rome Wasn't Digitized in a Day - Council on Library and Information ...

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After correct<strong>in</strong>g and standardiz<strong>in</strong>g the place-name tagg<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the English Histories of Herodotus, the
HESTIA project extracted this <strong>in</strong>formation and compiled a spatial database stored <strong>in</strong> PostgreSQL 309
(which has a PostGIS extension). This database can be queried to produce different automated results
that can then be visualized through maps. The generation of this database posed a number of problems,
however, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g questions as to what if any connections Herodotus might have been draw<strong>in</strong>g
between places, the quality of the English translation, and various syntactic issues of language
representation. Nonetheless, the f<strong>in</strong>al database has a simple structure and conta<strong>in</strong>s only three tables:
sections (which stores <strong>in</strong>formation about the section of Herodotus text); locations (which stores unique
locations); and references (this table ties the locations and sections together by provid<strong>in</strong>g unique IDs
for all references to spatial locations with<strong>in</strong> Herodotus). Whereas Perseus had used only a s<strong>in</strong>gle level
of categorization, HESTIA <strong>in</strong>troduced a broader level of categorization of “geotype” and “subtype,” a
process that also def<strong>in</strong>es places as settlements, territories, or physical features.
The HESTIA project chose QGIS, 310 an open-source GIS tool that connects easily to PostGIS, as the
application for query<strong>in</strong>g the database and generat<strong>in</strong>g maps. As with the choice of PostgreSQL, Barker
et al. were concerned with choos<strong>in</strong>g applications that would support long-term data preservation and
analysis. Us<strong>in</strong>g these tools allowed SQL queries to be generated that could perform various functions
with related maps, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g produc<strong>in</strong>g a gazetteer of sites, list<strong>in</strong>g the total number of references to a
location (such as by book of Herodotus), and generat<strong>in</strong>g a network based on co-reference of locations
(e.g.. with<strong>in</strong> a specific book). To provide greater public access to these data, the HESTIA project
decided to expose the PostGIS data as KML so that it could be read by various mapp<strong>in</strong>g applications
such as GoogleEarth. The project accomplished this by us<strong>in</strong>g GeoServer, an “Open Source server that
serves spatial data <strong>in</strong> a variety of web-friendly formats simultaneously” <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g KML and SVG. The
creation of this “Herodotus geodata” allows users to construct their own mashups of the visual and
textual data created by the HESTIA project.
To more successfully visualize spatial changes <strong>in</strong> the narrative, the project made use of TimeMap.js, 311
an open-source project that uses several technologies to “allow data plotted on GoogleMaps to appear
and disappear as a timel<strong>in</strong>e is moved.” The project hired the developer of TimeMap, Nick Rab<strong>in</strong>owitz,
to create a “Herodotus Narrative Timel<strong>in</strong>e” that “allows users to visualise locations referred to <strong>in</strong> the
text by scroll<strong>in</strong>g along a 'timel<strong>in</strong>e' represent<strong>in</strong>g each chapter.” 312 The development of this timel<strong>in</strong>e,
however, also required the creation of one feature to better <strong>in</strong>tegrate textual and visual data:
When places are first mentioned, they appear flush to the right-hand side of the ‘timel<strong>in</strong>e’ bar
and fully coloured <strong>in</strong> on the map. As one moves through the narrative, however, they move to
the left of the ‘timel<strong>in</strong>e’ bar accord<strong>in</strong>gly and become ever fa<strong>in</strong>ter on the map, until, <strong>in</strong> both
cases, they drop out altogether. In do<strong>in</strong>g this, we have tried to reproduce more accurately the
read<strong>in</strong>g experience: <strong>in</strong> the m<strong>in</strong>d; some chapters later, this place might no longer hold the
attention so greatly, but its memory l<strong>in</strong>gers on (captured <strong>in</strong> the Timel<strong>in</strong>e Map by the faded
icons), until it disappears altogether. By re-visualis<strong>in</strong>g the data <strong>in</strong> this format, we hope not only
to assist <strong>in</strong> the read<strong>in</strong>g experience of Herodotus but also to raise new research questions that
would not have been apparent before the advent of such technology (Barker et al. 2010)
309 http://www.postgresql.org/about/
310 http://www.qgis.org/
311 http://code.google.com/p/timemap/
312 http://www.nickrab<strong>in</strong>owitz.com/projects/timemap/herodotus/basic.html